I've enjoyed the interesting aspects of this mod relative to vanilla BG2 and other difficulty mods. After a few run-throughs though, using a standard or semi-standard party isn't too much of a challenge. With this mod, a low-level challenge, no-reload challenge, and/or poverty challenge are all out of the question. So the only other challenges I can think of are a "no arcane magic challenge" (which frankly I think is quite do-able thanks to Iron Skins and Greater Restoration and Auramasters), or perhaps a party entirely composed of the types of classes and kits that people tend not to use (at least from what I can see in the journals here).

Some classes I am considering:

Archer
The major issue here is that so many monsters have extra resistance to missiles, relative to other damage types (or outright immunity). So this leaves you with essentially the Bow of Gesen's flat 2 piercing damage, or using Arrows of Piercing whenever you have some. Also, I think Tuigan isn't available until somewhere in Watcher's Keep (unless it's randomized?), which hurts the archer in the early game. The lack of Strength bonus to damage, and the Dexterity bonus to Thac0 actually not scaling like it does with Strength (and, to add insult to injury, it is of course much harder to raise Dexterity in this game as compared to Strength). Called Shot is intriguing, but there are only a few encounters in which you're facing just one enemy hitting you, so the Thac0 penalty from it would just impact one of them. Unfortunately the STR loss per hit is too short-lasting to be relied upon to kill something by getting them down to 0 STR, though perhaps in multiples this is more readily achievable?

Wild Mage
Potentially using high-level spells early in the game is nice, but a Wild Surge on 1 out of 20 spells means you're likely to really get hurt by this in perhaps the majority of battles. I suppose you could reload until at least your pre-buffing goes correctly, and then take fights from there, but that's no fun.

Blade
Can't cast the all-important level 7 Ruby Ray spell, so he's stuck using scrolls for this. Same with Limited Wish for undead protection. No Alacrity, meaning you're just getting one spell per turn out of him. Use Any Item is still pretty nice and you could make quite a tank out of a Blade, but the offensive capability is really lacking. And without the classical fast leveling of a bard, or the usefulness of the HLA traps, it seems like a Figher/Mage multi is almost entirely dominant over this class.

Inquisitor
No higher than Specialization really hurts, especially if you're using two-handed weapons - he will max out at 5 attacks under Improved Haste. Would be a nice tweak if paladins could get grandmastery in 2H swords, given it's their signature weapon style and it is so important in games in which the un-nerfed grandmastery is used.

Swashbuckler
The weapon and armor for this class are underwhelming and very expensive. Lack of Use Any Item hurts a ton, and the HLA of Acrobatic Combat is extremely underwhelming. Still, the possibility for a very low AC could make him a good tank, but why not use a Ranger Cleric for this purpose and get more offensive output and more defensive capabilities?

Thief dualed to a Cleric
Level a thief to 23 to get Use Any Item, then dual him to a Cleric. I believe he can then get 105% physical resistance (40% hardiness from Wish, 25% from Jan's armor, 10% from Defender of Easthaven or Warblade upgrade, 5% from Master of Disciplines, 10% from Armor of Faith, 15% from Scarlet Ioun Stone if PC is a necro). And he could use Scarlet Ninja-to in offhand to get 6 attacks under Improved Haste, and cast spells from scrolls. Not great, but pretty useful. Alternatively, I think you could take a Cleric and dual immediately to thief. Armor of Faith gives you the 10% resistance right from level 1, and likewise the 15 round duration. You lose out on higher-level cleric spells, but it would be an interesting character for sure. Without the Scarlet Ioun Stone, he loses a lot of appeal as a tank, and I think would be forced to aim for low AC route for damage prevention.

Viconia
The 65% magic resistance is very tempting, especially with the Human Flesh armor being available pretty early. But from a weapons perspective, she's just no help in combat with a poor Thac0 and limited weapon selection that maxes out at 4 APR. Still, Greater Restoration is pretty awesome.

Monk
A better Viconia in some ways, ending up with more magic resist in the mid to late game. But maxing out at 5 attacks per round is still a bummer here, not to mention the inability to really do piercing or slashing damage. I am also curious why their Thac0 doesn't get better than 5. If I remember correctly, they used the fighter Thac0 progression in vanilla.

Wizardslayer
Again, intriguing for the magic resist. It appears they use the 1% per level growth up until level 20 or so (as defined by the manual, though in the actual original ToB game it was 2% per level until level 20). At least, unlike every other character here, they can attain the all important grandmastery. But lack of magic rings and cloaks is going to make for some terrible saves when spells do sneak through. There's basically severe penalties to this class throughout the entire first half of the game; 20% magic resist at level 20 means you're still going to get chunked 80% of the time when you fail your saves.

Beastmaster
Clubs and Quarterstaves are pretty good in this mod, so the weapon restrictions aren't as bad as they'd be in a typical BG2 difficulty mod. And the extra HP from Find Familiar would be pretty nice. Relative to most of the above kits, this actually wouldn't be too bad. But it feels a lot like a subpar ranger, rather than an entirely new kit or class decision.

Any cool strategy ideas for the characters above that I am missing? Curious to hear people's thoughts.

I like your ideas blastermaster! Party composition is my thing! So if I might add my 2 cents...

First off I think someone can get through a no reload challenge eventually. At least through the SOA portion of the game. I usually wind up postponing my parties when I get to TOB and never pick them back up so I don't know if it's possible in that part however. At the moment I'm close to posting a journal with a party that has had only 6 reloads and at this point all I have left to do is Orcus, Watcher's Keep Supreme Leader area, Black Dragon, Tree of Life and Vagrant quests. With some tweaks to my party like a Necromancer protagonist, a Riskbreaker instead of my Wizard Slayer and a Berserker>Cleric instead of my experimental Cleric of Lathander>Ranger I think I'd have a better chance.

I had a party with 3 of your possibilities consisting of an Archer, Monk and Blade so I'll start there. Auramaster, Riskbreaker and Necromancer rounded out that party and I got to a point where I had only enemies that required +4 weapons to hit and I couldn't hack it.

Archer
An archer could support a really good party but they only shine against 1% of enemies. Once you strip a mage, and having little to no arcane casters makes that harder, the mage is dead in an Archers presence. But that pretty much goes for any fighter, it just happens faster with an Archer. If you go Divine instead of Arcane an archer would be tough company.

Monk
At this point in the game my Monk hadn't even leveled up high enough to have +4 fists so he was worthless. Earlier in the game he was a very fun character to play but took some baby sitting due to low hit points.

Blade
The Blade is a super supportive class in IA and I mean that in a good way. He can give you time to focus your attacks elsewhere while he tanks ANYTHING. He also doesn't get targeted by Greater Silence so in certain battles where a F/M gets stripped into a less than decent fighter the Blade can excel. Sikret nerfed them for a reason and I think they are still a great addition to a good party. A party that's hindered by damage output won't be fun. Maybe that Inquisitor along with another fighter would let you tank, dispel and punish.

Inquisitor
I've had Keldorn as well as my own created one. Their dispel magic is huge...it stripped more enemies than I had imaged it would. This might be a great addition to a party that has a hard time killing buffed enemies but most IA enemies have resistances, not buffs. A kit that allowed an Paladin/Inquisitor to lower physical resistance would be nice.

Cleric/Thief multi or dual
THE most disappointing class I've played with in IA was a Cleric dual to a thief. No UAI when you dual from Cleric to Thief. Absolutely worthless class. Prior to IA I had powerful and fun to play duals and multi's with them in vanilla and Tactics. Not here, removing traps and a couple buffs before battle is all you have to look forward to. And if you go the other way and dual your thief to cleric he might regain his thieving abilities mid TOB. Don't do it. Trust me.

Viconia
She was part of my last Vagrant run. Poor THACO is not an issue with Holy Power, until it gets dispelled. She winds up being really good. IIRC you can get her MR up quite a bit more than 65%. 25 STR, good THACO, MR, a little physical resistance, Globe of Blades, Aura of Flaming Death and SUPER low AC. She is one tough bitch. 4 APR isn't much but she'll hit and hit hard at higher levels in addition to being tankish. If you had her as your only Divine caster and say your Wild Mage that leaves room for more mid range experimental fighter types.

Wizard Slayer
Like I mentioned up top I'm using one now. He's level 27 and has 63% MR with the Warlords Blade MR bonus. Could he compete offensively with a Kensai or RB? Not quite, but there have been some fights that he has completely changed. Some spellcasters will miss a spell here and there before they reach into their packs to use a scroll of AI or their contingency goes off, and that can be huge. Looking back at my journal he had an impact on almost every spellcaster battle. Being a Half-Orc, missing saves against damage aren't usually insta-death. With Lilacor and an Auramaster watching his back throughout the game mind affecting spells weren't too troublesome either. If you were to couple a Wizard Slayer with a Protector he'd be golden. It has mainly been bad AC that hurts.

I haven't tried a Wild Mage but I want to. Beastmaster class is one I will never try unless it gets changed...Capital L - A - M - E. And I was waiting on v7 before trying a Swashbuckler.

For me a good challenge going through the game is just reloading fewer times than the last time I did. Other times I just want to try different party compositions. Whatever you decide to do...
GOOD LUCK!

Thank you for the feedback and insight! Very useful. What is your current party? Or are you saving this for the journal reveal?!

On the topic of no-reloads, I'm afraid I don't have enough experience with this mod to pursue that. I've only done a couple of runs and I tend to intersperse them with Swords Coast Strategems challenges, or vanilla challenges, so I soon forget some of the specifics of these battles (enemy resistances, number of waves of enemies, when a monster is invulnerable, etc.). Even with extensive experience though, I think some battles (Yaga Shura, Twisted Rune) would still be a bit difficult for me due to complexity. I actually think TOB is easier to no-reload than SOA though, at least given my current run. Yaga Shura is the only battle that's really given me trouble, and part of this was because one of my character slots was occupied by a thief waiting to get his Kensai abilities back :-)

For archers I would love to make a PC archer run (I could probably modify the Vagrant quests to look for an Archer instead, too), but there's basically no upside. Similar to something like a Bounty Hunter... I hate the idea of just handicapping myself. I like the kits that provide some weird ability you can build around. At least Beastmasters give you a few extra HP, even if their Summon Animals ability is useless.

The monk's level 4 enchantment issue is certainly problematic. I wonder if there was a way to grant them "strikes as +4" fists when you get those Gauntlets of Crushing. And likewise +5 when/if you upgrade them to the IA-specific upgraded version. It would make sense, thematically, to me. But seems awfully hard to combat things like the Troll Queen, Spider Queen, and Skeleton Grandlords without a major crushing damage dealer being able to touch them.

By the way, your comments on Blades and Silence was an interesting consideration that I forgot about. I am just about wrapping up a run in which I never saw a Silence spell. My party is a Necromancer, Cernd, 3 Riskbreakers and a Kensai-Thief dual. Dragon fights, with the exception of Dracolich, have pretty much been a joke, both due to better strategy on my part now that I know how to fight them, and because I never even had to consider their silencing abilities.

If I did Cleric/Theif, I would either dual the Cleric at Level 7 (essentially just for the HP and full strength Armor of Faith castings), or I would go from Thief (once getting UAI) to Cleric. Use Any Item is just so interesting, strategically. It gives so many options, I really enjoy it.

Your comment on Viconia is making me consider some kind of low-AC run. As mentioned above with my current party, I am accustomed to going the route of physical resistance and healing, but the Kensai-Thief is easily hitting -24 AC and it has been enjoyable to watch Gem Golems just whiff at him. Also I've not ever used any of the heavy plate armors in this mod, so that is part of my interest in things like Inquisitors and Wizard Slayers.

And thanks for the insight into wizard slayer. Though I am afraid even 63% MR isn't that impressive in my eyes (though you could roll him as Evil and give him the Human Flesh armor I suppose). At 63% MR, facing a 3xADHW you are still going to get hit by all three about 5% of the time, which likely results in death. And of course, before getting Warblade, at lower levels, it's far worse both due to not having Warblade and due to having lower innate resistance. But yes, once out of the Underdark and past Kruin, it seems like you can have a very strong magic resistance and count on surviving such things most of the time. (Though it seems to me that a Monk may give you similar magic resistance but with more flexibility in terms of rings and amulets and potions). Really tough call between this and monk, were I to make one of these gimped parties.

Current party is a Vagrant PC with
Sorceror
Wizard Slayer
Auramaster
Cleric of Lathander>Ranger dual at level 10
Berserker>Mage dual at level at level 9

I've never really used a B>M before this. I might have enjoyed a F/M more even with the long agonizing leveling up. Don't get me wrong B>M is a beast defensively and offensively, but for some reason seems kind of bland.

The C>R dual was an idea to see if she would be better than a Berserker>Cleric dual. For most of the game I think a B>C is more useful. Boon of Lathander gets dispelled by vampires just like negative plane protection. I didn't give myself enough spell selection at this level of dual but I was going for reloading as few times as possible and needed both classes active ASAP. As far as experience from kills she's 4th...B>M 27% Vagrant 24% Wizard Slayer 20% and C>R 19%. Once I started getting HLAs she has improved a lot though.

Balancing a powerful party with some unique classes is a fun way to go for me. An entire gimped party would be fun at certain times but I have a feeling I would rage quit.

I'm going with an all-gimped squad, why not :-) Changed some of the character kits and classes to get NPC dialogues; tried to stay with the NPC's theme.

PC - Archer (will be treated like a Vagrant for quest purposes)
Nalia - Wild Mage (kind of random, but I've actually never played with her before)
Jan - Blade
Keldorn - Inquisitor
Minsc - Monk (Cernd is usually the go-to here, but I used him last playthrough)
Viconia - Cleric of Lathander (may switch this to Talos; in hindsight it doesn't make much sense since she begins Evil and only turns to Neutral in TOB)

What is interesting about this party is that the latter 4 characters can all get around 75-90% magic resistance, between natural ability, their special NPC items, or other items in the game. The down side is that they're mostly horrible in terms of physical damage, and I'm not really going to be able to use Flail of Defending and Wounding or Judgment Day. I may roll Sarevok into a Wizard Slayer so I can try using Judgment Day in ToB. Keeps with the magic resist theme, but can actually use the coolest weapon.

Already I am having some trouble. The Greater Crawler in the sewers is immune to level 2 and below. My only +3 is a club; I really need a Martial Staff to give to Keldorn as he's the only one with decent Thac0. I could use Enchanted Weapon to make a long sword for Jan, but his Thac0 and APR are horrible. His bard song (+4 to Thac0 and Damage, I believe) is pretty cool though.

Mist Horrors and Vampiric Mists have 50% resistance to missile. Ghost Spiders are immune to missile. It's sad that I'm desperately looking forward to when I get the Gesen Bow and it's 2 piercing damage.

You have a small number of decent fighting power. By that I mean chars who can hit effectively, competent warriors (rangers or fighters). This party might have difficulty in dishing out the required amounts of damage in certain encounters. I have a problem imagining your protagonist winning a duel against the anti-ranger, for example, in the third vagrant quest. Numerous golem ecounters, etc. EDE, if you ever get to that stage.

The whole idea sounds fun, just make sure it won't turn into something frustrating and tedious.

Yes, probably should have oriented it a bit more towards underused characters that are decent in melee (wizard slayer, beast master, etc.)

On the down side, I tried out Arrows of Piercing for the first time and it seems their bonus damage doesn't bypass magic resistance. So a Whisper Spider, with 100 Missile Resist and 75 Magic Resist would take 3 damage per piercing arrow, 25% of the time. Assuming I hit every single shot I took at it, and assuming they didn't regenerate (they do), it would take 128 Arrows of Piercing to take down a Whisper Spider. Good times!

@ blastermaster:

A no-reload challenge (even on Insane) is doable, but you need a lot of experience with the mod and a powerful party, best with a LG Necro protagonist. I've done it once, I even tried with a Vagrant PC but failed in ToB (Ancient Dragon).

Still, if you do not have the time to invest in developing no-reload strategies, I'd offer you something more suitable than your current party. Unfortunately, as critto predicted, you soon will become frustrated and drop it. An IA v6 party can be allowed a couple of crappy party members, but not too many, and unfortunately your entire current team is, well, neither arcane nor melee gifted - not even one of them.

After finishing my Vagrant run, I wanted to try something extremely hard - no-reload insane with no IA modified classes or kits in the party, and no pre-generated NPCs either. This basically means no Vagrants, Auramasters or Riskbreakers, or even a Necro protagonist. All in-game NPCs however are gladly welcomed, including Imoen. Such a party, consisting of for example Edwin, Nalia (either replaced by Imoen later), Korgan, Mazzy, Anomen (or Jaheira), and a PC LG warrior-type may look overwhelming, but actually on Insane 40% physical resistance is extremely insufficient, especially with no innate regeneration or instaheal ability like the Risk Decrement. You may try that, well, except for the no-reload part.

Regarding anti-ranger, I looked him up in Near Infinity to refresh my memory. He has 100 resistances across the board. If I remember correctly, you need a swanmay to lower his resistances. Maybe I will give the Vagrant swanmay abilities to my Archer, I don't know. I am mostly just trying to see if I can make it to chapter 6 and get Gesen Bow built.

Wild Mage is super interesting. There are scrolls of Limited Wish and Symbol: Stun in the Adventurer's Mart that offer some interesting uses for Nahal's Reckless Dweomer. That also gives you Alacrity for a handful of spells, even at a low level. I'd highly suggest someone do a Wild Mage protagonist run in the future, due to the potential with Memory of the Apprenti.

I know most IA custom monsters are immune to Stun, but it was nice to just pound Mae'Var's goons with Symbol: Stun and have Viconia run up and Free Action my important team members thereafter.

Jan as Blade is proving less and less useful each day. May need to swap him out for either a Wizard Slayer, a Beast Master, or a Swashbuckler.

Gesen's bow shaft is in the Item Randomizer menu and is often found in Watcher's Keep, level 4 (Demilich, Saladrex). Which is by all means too late in the game to matter.

The lowered anti-ranger's resistances are still pretty high and I think he regenerates, so shooting at him is probably out of the question. Not to mention he's fast. Still, you may skip the entire Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar quest entirely. It's pointless, it's ridiculously hard, and in the long run it's useless. Neither the upgraded Axe of the Lakesider will be of any use to you, nor will you be able to get some more Barbarian essence potions from the quest. And the help you get from it in the EDE fight is also unnecessary.

Haven't played a Blade in v6, still dunno if he gets UAI. If so, a blade can still be useful with Scarlet off and other nice UAI items like Cernd's upgraded cloak for example. You still need to buff THAC0 somehow, but unless you play with The Four mod, I don't see how it's possible. If you do, the druidic helmet from it grants +4 THAC0 and the bard's ring grants 5 more, which is enough. Also dunno if Offensive spin still adds that extra APR and still can be used together with Improved haste. If not, pick another bard kit for Jan, possibly Skald.

Just some comments (all this is very personnel, based on my experience, just take it as a point of vue among others)

@blastermaster: with your party, I sincerely doubt you will go very far because of lack of fighting power (others pointed that already), and definiteley I would say Archer will never win over anti-ranger (Vagrant quest)
Another question / tips for you: I am currently trying BG2EE, hired Neera, a wild mage, and confess it is the first time I play a wild mage (though I love mage class) and I am at a loss trying to get some positive results from surges, confess for the moment I often fear what will happen if she casts (party level 12)

For those who want to experiment "no reload", easiest way (IMHO) is to start a run with a powerful party and then re-run with same party. For example take Necro, Kensai (2H wielder), RB (dual wielder) , dual R7->C, Cernd and Valygar (join him when you are just above 1.3 Mxp for protag, take a custom sorceress or another RB before), once you have make a run with it you will most likely achieve very few or no reload afterwards (because mastering proper order of "IA improved" fights , each tough enemies,...). Since I like to change party at every run to have a different experience, it is not my cup of tea, but I once tried redoing a run with same party (the same one I pointed), fun was not here for me , but no reloads there was until I got bored end of chapter 6, after beating ancient dragon.


For lesser used NPCs and class, I am not as creative as Hideous or other players, I experimented a dual Kensaï 16->mage, it was a monster!

I prefer trying party with many same class chars (Necro, sorceress, 2 vagrants, Cernd an auramaster for example) which is quite fun (IMO).

One challenge I would advise to try once if you want to cope with weakness: complete game without ever going to WK! (Yes means Necro will not have RVE and tons of tremendous items cannot be forged) I had reloads, but Prince fell nonetheless (OK party was Necro, RB, RB, Kensaï, dual R->C and Imoen)

I have made one swap, which was to remove the Blade and replace with Wizard Slayer. I have noticed that they can use helmets, which is nice (I did not know that). Still, I am losing interest in this quickly. Things like the Improved Web of the Ghost Spider have a save at -6 and bypass magic resistance. So even the meager magic resistance I gain from being a Wizard Slayer is made completely useless, and of course my saves are far worse than any normal fighter due to not being able to wear rings, cloaks, and necklaces.

Chaos Shield is important for the wild mage; I think it adds 10 to the roll for wild surge, and your level will add 12, so now you will roll "spell cast normally" for 22% of the time. In addition, Contingencies and Spell Triggers seem to not have any chance of wild surge, so you can actually use them pretty effectively. I used the Level 1 NPCs mod to make Nalia my wild mage, and for some reason she began with some nice spells in her spellbook (Mass Invisibility, Spell Trigger). I am not sure if this was because she was a Wild Mage or because she was Nalia (I've never used her before). But when I've used the Wild Mage thus far, I usually just have her run in and fire off 5 Symbol Stun spells as quickly as possible. Most of them will fail, but if one or two are cast successfully, it can be pretty disabling for enemies at this stage.

Anyways, it's been fun so far, but indeed it does feel like the deck is stacked against me with the way these "challenges" are set up. All of my attacks get magic resisted (i.e. piercing arrows), while the enemies attacks like Improved Web will ignore magic resistance. Perhaps it is my fault for blowing through my first run with a Necromancer, 3 riskbreakers, a kensai and an Auramaster.

The Watcher's Keep challenge is interesting. With the right party, RVE isn't particularly needed. For me it just makes some battles go faster since I can cast it a bunch of times for regeration and just go on an all-out assault with my fighters. And most of the items in this game aren't really needed either... the Necro boosts are nice, as are Cernd's, but pretty much every weapon upgrade can be skipped. Even the Dragon Lord halberd everyone speaks so highly of, I didn't find that necessary for the EDE. In fact, I found K'Logarath to be the best weapon against the Prince. But losing out on the experience, and gold (to buy more +2 and +4 rings) would be most hurtful I think.

You can pre-buff party saves by having Mazzy (2 invoke courage per day gives +2 to all saves and THAC0 for 5 turns) with an arcane caster who can wish for Rest (and additional Invoke Courages). Another way of improving WS saves is by making him evil, then give him Human Flesh in chapter 6, however this way he won't be able to use many of the powerful IA weapons. You can also use Free Action spells or potions in the tougher fights against spiders. Potions are more plentiful than in the original game, however they're still a limited quantity. Free Action potions cannot be dispelled by Breach or enemy's Dispel Specific Protections melee attack. On the other hand, a clerical Free Action spell is much more resistant to Dispel/Remove Magic.

No WK challenge seems interesting, but what I find more challenging is the 6-sorcerers party. I think that Raven did it for IA v5, it's much harder to do in v6, and no one ever tried it.

> No WK challenge seems interesting, but what I find more challenging is the 6-sorcerers party. I think that Raven did it for IA v5, it's much harder to do in v6, and no one ever tried it.
Is there a recollection of it somewhere on the forum? Wouldn't mind reading that.

I tried SPOILER!

Oh, interesting!

What are your options? Bigby's, Vampiric Touch, Larloch's Minor Drain? Does Comet's crushing damage work, or does the fire damage heal it? Did you have the Golem Slayer weapon?

I don't think there is reference in the forum. I remember a discussion going on about the 6-sorcerer challenge several years ago, when v6 was still in development, and that Raven did it. Not sure about his tactics though.

@ nicoper: You shouldn't give up that fast. Unfortunately, if you had problems vs a Greater elemental golem, probably it's because your spell selections weren't optimal. Naturally you cannot rely on damaging spells vs such a foe, and even Energy Blades or Bigby's crushing hand will do very small amount of damage. However, Polymorph self (spider), combined with sequencers/contingencies of Shocking Grasp, Tenser's (partial) Transformation, Giant Strength, Protection from Magical Weapons + additional multiple scrolls of PFMW will win the fight very, very fast.

Do not rely on Comet. I've tried it against the Grave Liches in the Old One quest. All it did was disperse the Grave Liches, and one even got close to the immobilized party members in the next (sealed, yeah) room and started killing them one by one. And yes, no damage. Grave liches aren't magic resistant, they simply were immune to the comet's damage, all of it. Comet is good against one foe:

SPOILER!


And it's good vs him because of the fire damage.

The spell selections with such a team will be extremely tricky, I haven't figured it out myself. Didn't really put my mind into it though. And at least you won't have to worry about finding specific ingredients, since all that six sorcerers need is boots of speed, some staves +4 and protective rings/cloaks
Of course, LMD and VT should be picked by everyone not that many good spells at levels 1 and 3 anyways. The tricky picks are levels 4, 5 and especially 6 and 9. The other spell choices will be almost identical.

For Sorcerer party, there is so much to say at every step that I may one day try again and write a journal. Many chapter 1,2,3 fights and foes are nigtmarish (bone golems in sphere or windspear dungeon for example) and some were not done when I was in chapter 6.
I gave up with greater elemental (the easiest one, in illthid compound) not because it could not be beaten, but because I realized then many foes would never be beaten SPOILER!
so journal will end before ToB if journal there is in the future.

For those who care, I started killing alhoon (1 round and a half, RRoR and DB), then eliminatd (6? IIRC) gems and coin (RRoR, HoU, VT, summons), then changed spells (summons, summons, summons: Salamanders, trolls and yuan-tis) used Wish to refresh, half party summoning, half party buffing (including summons), mages pounding while not casting (for a pitiful number of landed blows, even with giantstrength..)
It was long, tedious, when I thought of other greater elementals then other enemies, I yielded

I even suspect IAV5 was not doable by such party, but if there is a journal around.....

If one wants mage heavy party, I would advise to try 5 mages but take one strong (High Tach0) Fighter along

Hi,all.I`m a Chinese player who began to play IA half a year ago.I read almost all the post from BWL,G3 and some other Chinese forum that talk about IA v6(especially Nicoper`s run,which was translated into Chinese,I learned a lot),after that I finished my necro and vargrant run,both on insane.Now I`d like to share my experience to you and give some suggestion(don`t blame my poor English):

1.The vargrant quest is not as hard as you thought,even the drowned soul battle.As Krell said,potion of free action and clarity will not be dispelled by spiders and the drowned soul,besides,the mirror whisper spider has only 90 fire resistant,so your mage can kill most of them with fire ball,sun flame and dragon breath in 2 rounds.The mirrior master battle is realitive hard,however,fire attacks still work here.

2.An archer protag can win the anti-ranger battle if he has 100% physical resistant and can summon a swanmay.He can`t shoot effectively but can melee attack with the weapon”gnasher club”.The gnasher club is the best weapon against anti-ranger and anti-inquisitor.

3.Most minor golem can be petrified,even amber golem,hardwood golem and web golem.I don`t know if Sikret mean to leave this flaw to us,however,it`s a technical work to petrify a golem(reduce resistant*3 first,then doom and gm,then you may get 55% chance to petrify it),more tactical than melee attack a 95% slashing resistance monster(the web golem),which is really really boring.

4.Use Foebane,Purifier and Equilibrium off-hand can increase the damage main-hand(depend on enemy type)(EE fixed it)

Here are some party and some class I suggest,hope can inspire you:

A six fighter party
In my last vargrant run I use vargrant,kensai(dual wielder——yes,a dual wielder,which is a far better fighter than RB or a 2H wielder kensai,he can use JD sword to protect himself and hammer of thor,which is also 2H range),B/M dual,R/C dual,FI multi and K/T dual.My party has 6 fighter，can not wish for rest and wish for double-time IA+TS.This party is really really crazy,can kill a supergolem or a ultragolem in less than 3 rounds,can kill a great elemental golem before he cast the second dm,can make raksha prince badly injured in 1 round.
The K/T dual is the most interesting class in my party,I dualed at kensai lv13.He can use many item when has UAI,beside Jan`s cloth,Cernd cloak,necklace of Discipline and so on,he can also use Noble staff of air/fire,which can be forged after defeat Supremeleader.The staff give K/T tensen transformation 20 rounds a day，set thac0 to 1,undispellable,so most enemy may face a 300-400HP,30-50 physical resistance(with wish for hardness is 70-90) monster for 20 rounds,which make the game much easy even on insane.

A six mage party
There is another Chinese player finished Necro run on insane,his party is Nec,Sor,Cernd,FI multi,B/M dual,R/C dual.This party has 3 character cast IA,4 cast CCC,6 cast stoneskin,also has 2 char use fighter HLA,so his party don`t only own a very strong arcane power but also some melee ability.The 6 sor party you metioned is much harder than his,so if you do want to play a six mage party,change 2 sor to FI or FM or some other class.

Archer
Archer is not a good fighter even he has Gesen bow,the damage is too low,however,the called shot is so powerful that no one immue.An archer+a lv10 mage(or a M/F dual at lv10) can pertrify golem well,first called shot,then use colorful ball(lv1 spell,don`t know how to say in English···）,he can also help a high level mage pertrify lich.In addition,mage+archer+R/C multi can play like that:mage cast IA,spellstrike, spelltrigger 3*Reduce resistance,archer called shot,then R/C use harm+CS.If my guess is right,even antient dragon will fall in no more than 5 rounds.So I may try the party next time:Nec,archer,C/M（lothandar dual at lv14）,RC,K/T,RB.It must be fun.

Swashbulcker and Bard
Their APR are too low,in my point of view,bring one of them is OK,both of them will make the play through very unpleasant.

Shapeshifter
A Shapeshifter can dual to fighter at lv13, after get giant werewolf.He can cast stoneskin before each battle,then shapshift,another mage read dm scroll(considered as lv10,will not dispel ss most of the time),disper the claw,then he can use any durid weapon,has 5 APR,50 elemental resistant and 40 magic resistant.Of course,if party has a M9F,the dispel problem will be much effective.

Wildmage
In my version of IA CCC 3*improved chaos shield can add up,Sikret announced IA fixed it so I don`t know why.If can add up,choose wildmage as a protag must be a funny choice(some of you can test that),otherwise he is a risk-maker.However,BG2EE fixed this bug.

Inquisitor
His dm is useful in some circumstance,Dracolich is a lv 25 mage,so a lv 17 inquisitor has 20% chance to dm it,Kurin is lv 25 too,his ii can be dispelled effectively.Also,If you want to challenge the hardest spellhold,a high level inquisitor may have chance to dm Jon`s ii as well(at least lv 20,has 10% chance).Kill Jon without killing 15 golems,that must be funny.

@ nicoper:

I wouldn't say the 6-sorcerer challenge wouldn't be boring and very hard, I just said it's possible if you start using your sorcerers as fighters whenever needed. Polymorph to Spider gives you 4 APR with any weapon, including a polearm. Tenser's transformation drops your THAC0 to 1, before other bonuses are applied. Giant Strength takes care of a spider's puny strength. Shocking Grasp takes care of the spider's claws since after attacking, the grasp is dispelled and normal weapon attributes are restored while still in spider form (4 base APR). Even the ancient dragon is probably doable if you polymorph 4 sorcerers to fighters after you draw the Elite Nishruu to target your PC. Because of protection to +1 and less weapons PC will be immune to all of nishruu's attacks while under PFMW and the nishruu wouldn't recognize the innate immunity and won't switch to another target.

A sorcerer can use any type of melee damage weapon. There is a good supply of both staves +4/+5 and daggers +4/+5, especially late in ToB. And for slashing damage there is Black Blade of Disaster, however combining it with a spidery form is very hard. Still, there are at least 4 scrolls of BBoD which should be used in Sendai's fight vs the Web Golems. There are also Energy blades which inflict Slashing damage with 9 APR.

Not all enemies are immune to level drain as well, some can be killed with that BBoD effect.

SPOILER!


No xp though.


@ chaser:

Always happy to see new players, seems you did some extensive testing. I watched a video of a chinese player petrifying Borinal's Amber golem. As I always say, no matter how well one thinks to know the game, there is always something new. I, for example, thought that all IA monsters are immune to petrify and other instakill effects. This is probably an oversight from Sikret. I had also forgotten about the archer's Called shot which reduces save vs spells. Yeah, this way + Chromatic Sphere any foe that isn't immune can be petrified.

I also used the Royal Elemental Staff with my Assassin - Fighter dual, however since Tenser's transformation prevents any spellcasting for the duration (including things like Hardiness and Critical Strike, those somehow are included as "spellcasting") I stopped using it in any fight but the last vs the Rakshasa Prince. Still, since your dual is the opposite (Kensai-Thief) I guess you don't have any Critical Strikes or Hardinesses to worry about

We all know that the 6-sorc party is very hard, but other parties seem too strong since some of us are looking for further challenge, like no arcane caster in the party or no fighter in the party, or 6 sorc party.

The Ancient Secret of Suldanesselar quest isn't that hard. It's simply highly unpredictable and that's why I wouldn't recommend it to anyone trying to pass a no-reload IA v6 challenge successfully. There are other tricks with Drowned Soul fight as well like: Stacking 6 or 8 of Mazzy Fentan's Invoke Courage abilities - last for 5 turns, each adds bonus of 1 to THAC0 and saves, cannot be dispelled by Dispel Specific Protections, use 3 Potions of Acid Resistance (not the spell) to protect PC from the Drowned Soul's acidic attack (won't be dispelled by Drowned Soul unlike the arcane spell ProAcid, and PC will heal somewhat with each hit he takes from the Drowned Soul). There is also a trick to quickly dispel the more bothersome Master of Mirrors by using a well-timed Chain Contingency with triple Khelben's Warding Whip on "nearest enemy" triggered on "hit"- use Larloch's minor drain on self to trigger the Chain Contingency exactly when needed, do remember that the 3*KWW must hit before enemy's starting buffs trigger, and keep a sufficiently short distance between the caster and the target (for some reason, KWW when shot from a CC has a very short range, less than half screen).

I've also done the hardest version of Spellhold, with a xp-capped party (there are certain open in the game infinite xp and gold exploits, even in the very beginning). Thing is that John has to be killed fast, if not, 6 more Asylum Scouts will arrive each subsequent round and your team will be overwhelmed. With a high-level remove magic plus Alacrity Jon indeed dies in 1 round, and btw - he has to, or you'll die.

@ chaser:


This is curious. On which levels do you dual your B/M and R/C here? As early as possible (I'd go with b9/m and r7/c) or do level up them a bit first? And what is the role of F/I? Why not to replace him with a pure warrior?

@ critto:
Yes,I use B9/M and R7/C.In a vargrant run,have only one mage is not sufficient,even cast improved haste is a big problem,not metion to breach enemy`s protection,so I choose FI.FI was weak in most of the SOA journal,he can only help breach enemies or tank them of buff the party.His first quantitive change is 5.1m exp,after gets HLA.Once reach 6.8m exp,he shines because of lv9 spell CCC and BBoD(BBoD gives him the same APR as other fighter).FI also has as many HLAs as other fighters,choose many CS and GWW but no hardness at all.

@ krell:
I believe that most IA players choose different party for fun,not for self-injury,so there should be a premise that you can finish the game first,at least in theory,otherwise it`s a waste of time.A six sorecers party can win most of the battle,but can hardly win EDE(A Chinese player used a sorcerer solo IA v5 and failed there),because of the insane AC and regeneration of RP.

There is another boss can be level drained——The supreme leader.Cast BBoD or the lv9 spell Energy Drain works well(need a large number of lv9 slots,maybe wish for rest).

@ chaser:

There is a big difference between an IA v5 sorcerer and v6 sorcerer, mainly because of the new spells, especially the powerful Monster Summoning V, VI and VII. Also, a solo of any kind except F/M will fail in v5 against the Rakshasa prince. I hardly was able to beat it even with a solo Blade, which is another kind of F/M, because of the poor THAC0 and lack of 9-lvl spells. However, a party of six sorcerers can defeat the Rakshasa prince, of that I'm positive, not to mention that you should also get Pasha Mahmoud as helper from the Planar Sphere extended quests. IA v6 sorcerers have also access to Foreknowledge, which buffs THAC0 and saves.

Didn't know that Supreme Leader can be lvl drained, good info.

Regarding your earlier info of the Harm spell, I don't think it works against enemies that are immune to magical damage (and most of them are).

@ krell:
I did a few test on antient dragon and supreme leader,harm takes affect on both of them.Because of my version of IA may have a little different from you,you can test it as well.

Some very interesting info in here, glad to see Called Shot isn't totally nerfed (I have noticed many monsters are immune to stat modification though).

As predicted, I have gotten bored with the lesser-used character run. I think the killer was noticing that Monks only topped out at 4 attacks per round (I thought it was 5 for some reason). And of course maxing out at 5 Thac0. I forget how crucial it is to have level 20 fighter Thac0 in this mod. Things like Spirit Spiders have something like -8 AC. Makes it difficult to ever hit anything with a cleric or druid or blade or monk.

My new idea is to try a small-party challenge. It looks as though 5-character parties have been successful in this mod, and I am pretty confident that it could be done with a 4-character party. So maybe I'll try 3 characters and see how far I can get. If things begin to look dire, perhaps I can rush to ToB and add Sarevok.

Don't go lower than 4 characters. I think there are some anti-soloing measures that are implemented that might prevent you from doing something. Not nice, perhaps, but it is what it is. Party of four should work well, however. I think nicoper played with one, he can probably comment further. Necromancer, Cernd, RB, Valygar - this combination pretty much owns the game. Not only perfect for less-than-six chars run-through, but also for experiments with other classes or party members.

Funny, I've never actually tried Valygar. He doesn't look that great on paper to me, at least compared to a Vagrant or Riskbreaker. I guess the AC and some of those spells add up though.

I'm not too worried about anti-solo measures; if I come across something like that, it's easy to find the relevant code and adjust as needed. Really the biggest anti-solo measure I think is the Improved Asylum, giving a party of 3 a very difficult choice to make as they level up.

I was thinking something like a Berserker Mage, a F/M/C, and one other character with the potential to PFMW. I assume battles will be a bit long and characters will be swarmed, so trying to refresh a stoneskin each round won't cut it.

You will never know it. For example, one of the so-called anti-solo measures is the Robe of Vecna. IF the item is randomized on Kaol (Samia's party, Windspear hills 2 lvl) and you don't pass a certain check point (or even several check points, don't know exactly) with flying colors (4 or more party members) you will never get it - Kaol simply won't drop the robe, and you won't find it at the other three possible locations SPOILER!
. Most so-called anti-solo measures are stuff like that, also include different scripts on powerful enemies - like for example if you face Orcus, Prince of the Undead with a solo character above 8 mil xp he will cast Purge Magic once every 4 rounds or so, dragons will also get to dispel high-level illusions by script and so on. However, I've tested a party with only a Necromancer protagonist (Lawful Good, not transferred from BG1, not edited) and a F/M/T from an IA v5 successful no-reload run (levels 40/40/40) and managed to reach the Ancient Dragon where I had to stop, since it was not actual 2-man team but rather a solo with the F/M/T. Thing is, the Necromancer LG protagonist seemed to disable all of Sikret's so called anti-solo implementations. So if you want to run a small party challenge, make it so with a Necro protagonist. And logically the other two should be Riskbreakers if you want to have any chance with the Prince that is.

Edit: About Valygar. He's a fine addition to any Core difficulty party. His improved equipment helps him stay alive, plus he gets the Green Leaves armor for additional +5 physical protection whenever needed. Thing is, on higher difficulty this isn't sufficient and he dies very fast. Also, he has fewer APR than a warrior type, which results in lesser damage in combat, which for a party of only 3 will be a great disadvantage.

Edit: Also critto is right about the multiclass mages, they are weak in v6. If you want fighter-mages, I guess you have to dualclass them, best from Kensai. Keep in mind, Kensai-mages cannot wear robes in IA v6, so keep one Berserker-Mage or even Necromancer protagonist. Another good reason for that is that Sikret implemented heavy in-game scripts and nasty stuff for any F/M type protagonists.

You should. He's a bit weak in the beginning, due to low HP. But he becomes powerful. Personalized items and special IA kit make him a great character. In a party with lesser amount of members his abilities will be of great assistance. Vagrants aren't the best option when it's not a protagonist, you'll miss out on a great amount of extra weaponry and items. It'll be just a decent fighter with high elemental resistance and few powerful summons. A solid choice, nonetheless, but not as optimal, in my opinion, for a 4-char play-through. And RBs are always a win.


Problem solved, then. If you know what to look for (checks for party members or xp amount), do it in advance, before starting the game.


F/M/C as the protagonist? Or simply take Necromancer as the protag and have an ultra-powerful full-time caster. You need someone to do that anyway, as you'll probably need to summon a lot and dispel the enemies' protections. Fighter-types would have to buff themselves and fight. I'd be careful though, mage multi-classes were powerful in IAv5 due to their ability to tank tough creatures (golems, etc.) for long periods of time, so this was nerfed in v6.

Yeah, the stuff that looks at XP is kind of annoying. As a fairly new player to the mod (I never knew v5), there were a lot of things I didn't do in the "right" order. I think one would know the "right" order after past version playthroughs. But for example, I fought

SPOILER!


...after doing every single other thing I could in the Underdark. And when I went to look through his script, it seems I triggered the "hard" version of him. Which was fine; my party was a bunch of super powerful kits and classes, so I didn't have much issue. But it was still annoying, because if my XP was "too high" for that enemy, then it means that some of the other battles and challenges I vanquished were at levels LOWER than expected. So it doesn't make much sense to me that some enemies will be beefed up purely because of the order I chose to tackle them.

I was considering doing the Berserker-Mage as a Necromancer (Shadowkeeper), to trigger those such quests. I don't think I could accomplish this without Immunity to Silence. And yeah, there's a bunch of enemies that can deal with PFMW in one way or another, but it's still super helpful. Maybe my third character should be an Assassin dualed to a Fighter... can get absurdly high physical and magical resistance and could tank quite a bit of this stuff without relying on refreshing spells.

Anyhow, really enjoy thinking this stuff out. I actually initially tried doing a Berserker dualed at 9 to Mage. I was able to get the Berserker levels back successfully, but quickly realized he wouldn't be able to handle some of the TOB tasks. It does really make things interesting though, to be able to pile upon one character all of that experience, weapons, items, etc. You could go to Spellhold at level 36 with +4 and +2 rings, fun stuff like that :-) But I don't think you could take down a Greater Elemental Golem, or the Supreme Leader, before things got out of control.

Still, it's cool to consider the diminishing returns of subsequent party members. That is, if your first party member is a "1.00", where that represents the strongest possible character, a party of six might look something like this:

1.00
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20

So a party of 6 is only as strong as 3 of the strongest characters. Or a 3-character team may well be more than two-thirds as effective as a full team of six, if that makes sense.

@ blastermaster:
When party members less than 5,some important items wouldn`t appear,some big bosses will “rage”.Good luck···

I also consider an all-multi party,like FI,FM,CM,FD,RC.They are lesser-used,but more useful than a bard or monk or swaskbuckler.No wish for rest,no weapon grandmastery,no improved haste before 1.7m exp,no HLAs before 5m exp,no level 9 spell before 6.8m exp···Which is a real chanllenge.I wouldn`t try it myself,for I brought FI twice.Hope someone will be interested in it.

Hah, I didn't realize that Wish Rest only appeared for single class mages. Lack of Grandmastery is no big deal though, due to Belm for one character and perhaps Scarlet Ninja-to for the other if he has UAI.

I also spent some time experimenting to find the HLAs for each combination. R/C does not get Foreknowledge. F/M/T gets Alacrity, but F/M/C does not. F/M/T does not get Use Any Item. C/T does not get Use Any Item or Foreknowledge. It seems only RC duals get Foreknowledge.

On the plus side, a party of 3 multi-class characters can certainly hit 5M experience before Spellhold. Whether they *want* to is another question :-)

@ blastermaster:

Never rely on Wish-Rest for any strategy.

Lack of Grandmastery will hurt most whenever needed most - vs the toughest opponents that are immune to +3 and less weapons. Against them Scarlet and Belm score no hits, effectively decreasing your overall APR by 2.

I didn't know F/M/T gets Alacrity. Guess another oversight. No UAI is no surprise, after all multiclass F/T don't get it either.

If you're patient enough, you can get a level 18 - 39 Ranger-Cleric, who will have it all - even one Ranger HLA. You absolutely need high-level clerical buffs and high-level dispel magic in certain fights.

Multiclasses will also end up with fewer HLA compared to a single- or even dualclass.

Not having access to high-level arcane buffs (i.e. no single-class spellcaster) will be very bad in many spots (Remove Magic), but will hurt mostly against the Rakshasa Prince, he has a good chance of dispelling even a 36-lvl arcane buff.

Some comments:

My 4 char run was Necro protag, RB, valygar and Cernd
I encounterer very few (but some I did) tweaks compared to a 6 char party

On the run itself (I made a journal of it years ago on the private forum, here)

first I took a 6 char party before spellhold, main reasons for that:
- with only 4 chars, I feared I would miss many items before spellhold beacause of XP cap, just because some fights could not be added to the list because of xp dramatically increasing with just 4 chars
- If I postponed in chapter 6 some fights which are nice because hard but doable before spellhold, I would find them ridiculously easy in chapter 6

Party was reduced down from 6 to 4 members just after meeting Imoen (xp cap!)

More levels soon made party very powerful, even though some fights are very difficult (compared to a party with one more mage or one more fighter).

edit: forgot link would not work, if anyone interested I will copy/paste journal (in this thread or another)

Very cool, I'd love to see it of course.

I am amidst the three-character run at the moment. I am a little worried that my berserker necromancer dual (HAX!) won't have the Thac0 to really compete in the endgame. Even in chapter 2/3, he whiffs a fair amount.

Still debating whether to do Spellhold above the cap or below. My Berserker/Necromancer will have FoA either way, my FMC will have the +3 club at least, and I'm sure I'll be able to find some +3 weapons for the thief who will dual sometime in the Underdark. The only items I'm really concerned about ensuring I get are Phosphorus, Vecna, and the necro amulet. Upgrading Vecna immediately before leaving for the Underdark (so I can hopefully postpone a certain someone) would obviously be an enormous help too. Even with a party of 3, I think I can do all of this and be well under the cap. I am currently at 750k experience and have done most of the vanilla stuff aside from strongholds and the base Unseeing Eye quest.

@ blastermaster:

Vecna has 4 different possible locations, if it ain't on Kaol or the unnamed Mage in the illithid compartment, then it's either on Layene or the Ancient Dragon, which you probably don't have the strength to fight yet. Probably same valid about Kaol and Alhoon. Also, I warned you earlier - if the robe is actually randomized on Kaol, you won't get it at all due to the so-called "anti-solo"measures. Cheating the robe in with a code will do you little good, Sikret implemented checks and such imported items tend to disappear soon enough.

It's strange you get so little xp from vanilla quests, I remember reaching 800+ per party member with a 5-man team from vanilla-only tasks.

Berserker-Necromancer dual (being illegitimate) may cause you in-game trouble, but moreover, you won't be able to equip such a character with items suitable for single class mages, nor will he be able to use the Amulet of Hades/Lord of the Underworld. Even if you give him UAI.

Phosphorous you will get, naturally, the ingredients are easy enough to come by.

One last thing - if you go to Spellhold below the cap for an Improved Asylum, then you won't stand a chance against the various beneficial challenges in chapter 4 and 5 (Book challenge, Librarian, Cat-o-nine-lives, Mithril Golem, Dracolich) and also the regular battles will be insanely hard with such a small and poorly equipped team.

Anyway, good luck.

Well,I`ve made a mistake that I didn`t realize a low level dm/rm can never dispel the buff of a higher level mage,so I have to re-examine the inquisitor.
After a few test,I can conclude that in most cases(in a no exploit run),if just for dispelling enemies,an inquisitor can be replaced by a high level cleric or an auramaster···

I also test a cleric-illusionist and a lathander dual to mage,they have a great potential,for the lv 5 cleric spell”champions strength”can be stacked(I ask another IA player to confirm that)!CI can use spell-trigger and chain-contingency 3*champions strength to boost the hit of other 2 members,he can also use self-polymorph,Tanser`s transformation and stack 6*champions strength to make himself a strong warrior,I guess the thac0 would be under -40···Well,really hope his apperance can make some poor thac0 character(maybe swashbuckler or some others) more useful.

When I was using my gimped 6-char party, the Inquisitor was actually the best character. Yes, a Ranger-Cleric can probably get you *most* of the dispelling power of the inquisitor, but I think the inquisitor will be a few levels ahead in ability at all times. Can be a big difference maker.

I put my three-character party on pause and decided to try an un-nerfed Fighter/Mage solo. That is, I removed all of the code that looks at party size and/or composition to determine rewards. So things like Spell Immunity scroll from a certain someone, etc. I also plan to let him choose Improved Alacrity once he reaches HLAs. I'm mostly just curious how far a character like this can go.

At the moment, I have 3.6M experience, so I am really looking to hit the 11.9M cap before heading to Spellhold. Getting level 6 spells was probably the biggest game-changer so far, as it allowed me to throw on PFMW and give myself enough time to deal sufficient damage in battles. I also used, for the first time in my BG career, Protection from Normal Missiles. It worked very well in the Slaver Ship, blocking arrows not only from the 4 archers but Captain Haegan's axes as well. He did melee me though.

I have Flail of Ages +3 and one +3 Morningstar. My current motivation is to forge Phosphorus +4 so I may tackle some challenges requiring such weapons. I need 2 permanency scrolls and one more +2 Morningstar to make this happen.

Quests of note that I plan to do next:
- Sphere
- Planar Prison
- Temple Ruins

At this point I think the biggest issue I will have is getting a scroll of Wish. I suspect many later battles will require many more copies of spells to be cast than I can memorize at once. Getting Wish will be the final enhancement to the character, and we will see how far he can advance from there.

Firkraag. Or any dragon fight. You're dead the moment that Greater Silence hits you, trust me. Even if you give your character immunity to silence via a code, it's just further cheat and it won't help you thanx to the further "modified" lower elemental resistance of dragons, which prevents you from raising it again once it has been lowered. In other words, you're gonna be fried no matter how many protection from fire spells and items you have. I could still be wrong, but doubtful. Anyway, you won't make it unless you implement some more code or whatever cheats.

You can get a scroll of Wish in the Illithid compartment of the temple sewers. It will do you little good though.

An IA v6 inquisitor (even Keldorn) is weak. Better take fewer party members and level them faster in order to have better dispel magic. Or take Cernd along.

You will also never make any real progress if you keep changing challenges. Yeah, they all seem impossible, but it seems to me you do give up too quickly...

The Sphere is proving to be a challenge at this point. With only three castings of level 6 spells available, I am forced to use one for Improved Haste and two for PFMW. The Greater Bone Golem and 2xGem and 2xCoin golems in the time machine ended up taking a lot of my potions and scrolls. I am down to one PFMW scroll, one Improved Mantle (which I'd really like to save to scribe in my spellbook, but haven't yet because I need another level before I could cast it from there), and one Absolute Immunity. I have three superior healing potions, one extra healing potion, and two oil of resurgences.

Lavok was challenging, due to his ability to PW:Kill once he finds a good opportunity. I am not used to multiclass FM and their lower HP than a dual class. Eyeballing my health bar, I'd think I was OK and then would hear the spell being cast and by then it's usually too late. Oil of Resurgence, which I almost never use in other runthroughs, was actually quite key here. It allowed me to recover from Lavok's intermittent damage spells (Vampiric Touch and Acid Arrow, I think) without using too many one-per-round actions. So I could refresh Haste and Stoneskin while recovering from his spells and staying out of PW:Kill range. It's always cool to find uses for things I never have before (see above with Protection from Normal Missiles).

I am terrified of the engine room of the sphere, because IIRC it has TWO groups of Greater Bone, 2xGem, 2xCoin, and they tend to come to each other's aid when you engage with one of them. EDIT: I am at level 14 mage, almost level 15, which brings no growth in level 6 spells (nor access to level 8 spells). I may have to revert back to pre-Sphere and level up before coming back. I don't see how I can manage the engine room otherwise, unless those groups are able to be battled separately. Or perhaps I can just go in there invisible and avoid them entirely; their loot and experience isn't terribly necessary given I'm only leveling up and equipping one character.

In fact, the group(s) in the power core can be tackled separately. I think the reason you have to fight them all at once with a large party is because one of them ends up within some distance of the other group, triggering their help. With my solo character, I was able to keep them hemmed in the narrow passage they start in, and face each group individually with rest in between. Additionally, thanks to the narrow pathway, only two of them can attack at a time, so I was able to comfortably refresh stoneskins, only using PFMW when I needed to refresh my Draw Upon Holy Might. Still, each group takes long enough that my Improved Haste runs out and I must finish the battle with plain Haste.

Things continue to go well and be fun, though I am constantly haunted by the choice to multiclass rather than dual class from a level 9 fighter. The dual class just can't get a great Thac0, even for chapter 2 and 3 enemies. By my math, Tenser's Partial gets him to 7 Thac0. Subtract 1 for Specialization, 7 for 25 strength (DUHM), 4 from weapon enchantment (when I'm able to get Phosphorus), 1 from gauntlets, 1 from Helm of Balduran, and you're only sitting at -7. By the end of the game, maybe -11 or -12, when you're able to factor in a nice Ioun stone upgrade, a slightly more enchanted weapon, etc. On the plus side, a level 9 fighter would get to level 33 mage, I think, and make for a very potent Remove Magic and perfect defense against the same from virtually every enemy in the game. If the dual class could get to around -17 or -18 Thac0, he could hit things like Greater/Supreme Golems every time (I think they have around -18 AC). That would make the choice a no-brainer in favor of dual.

Thought I was ready for Samia at 16/16. Was not ready for Samia at 16/16. Likely going to wait for level 9 spells before trying to tackle this one again.

Comet was super helpful for Samia & co. Breach on Chak, attack Chak (with one hit on Legdoril each round to ensure no Deva summoned), Comet to disperse the crowd. Keep Pro:Fire up, as well as Spell Immunity to ensure you're not having a comet land on your head. Spell Sequencer for Stoneskin and Pro:Fire is super helpful.

Umar was a major pain. The imp quickly overwhelms with summons and must be killed quickly. I didn't think I could strip his spell protections fast enough, so I just whacked away at him. One round to remove his first Stoneskin, one round to remove his Contingency stoneskin, and once I see a hit go through after that, I activate Critical Strike to take him down before any other defense could be raised. Had enough swings left on Critical Strike to take down one Whisper Spider too, which was nice. Exit the room to better position myself, refresh some protections, take down the Whisper Spider and focus on stripping away Umar's defense. Umar's summons seem unlimited, at least in some of my failed tries, and could be a source of a ton of experience and gold for a post-Spellhold party. Once Umar is dead, there's still around 8 Skeleton Lords and Warlords, plus Minotaurs, to be dealt with. Three scrolls of PFMW were used to survive.

Thax (shadow dragon) was exhilarating. Went in with full buffs (Pro:Acid, SI:Abjuration, Spell Turning, Stoneskin, PFMW, Mirror Image, Improved Haste, DUHM). Contingency set to Stoneskin upon 50% health. And just whacked away. Phosphorus until Thax cast PFMW, then moved it to the offhand and equipped a plain Morning Star in the main hand. Back to magic weapons a bit later, then unenchanted until Thax died. Ended up having 8 HP left at the end of the fight and paused to find the closest route to escape the death cloud just in case. If I had Mage level 20, I'd have gotten an extra skin on each Stoneskin cast and would have had a much more comfortable fight. If I was mage level 17, I don't think I would have succeeded since I'd have had one less skin each time. Either way, I made one significant mistake in not using Tenser's Transformation before the fight. I wouldn't be casting anyways, and the extra HP would have been a nice buffer.

So that is one major obstacle resolved, now that I can craft the Amulet of Hades and be immune to this silence business in the future. Next step is to do the bard and fighter strongholds, grab myself a permanency scroll and craft up Memory of the Apprenti to really kick the spells into high gear. Currently at 7.88M Experience (21 Fighter / 19 Necro), so will soon be at the point where it's just a matter of grabbing up some equipment before heading to (Improved) Spellhold.

Seems grave liches (for example the one with Daystar) can attack while under Time Stop. This cost me a reload :-)

Spider Queen and her minions cost me one PFMW scroll. Just so many of them...

Elemental Golem in the North room of Watcher's Keep Elemental Level was no problem. Only summoned two minor golems; should have let him stick around longer - not for the experience, which is rapidly approaching the level cap, but rather for the gems and coins they leave behind. I am very low on gold, and he dropped the Girdle of Fortitude (this is usually randomized much later for me).

Chromatic Demon always seems to revert to his fire form when being let out of his cage. Prep with SI:Abjuration, Spell Turning, Improved Haste, Absolute Immunity. Let him out, Lower Resistance, Improved Alacrity, Lower Resistance, Greater Malaison, Spell Trigger: 3xCone of Cold, bunch of castings of Cone of Cold, one casting of Ice Storm, Spell Sequencer 3xIce Storm, activate Smite, refresh Absolute Immunity. Attack him. Smite's stun does work on him, letting all further attacks hit with 100% chance (I think they would anyways due to Thac0 but I feel like I don't Critical Miss when enemy is stunned, could be my imagination though). The cold spells get him to Near Death, and my attacks take a couple of rounds to do the rest. At 2 damage per swing, and him regenerating 1 HP per second, he must have been down to about 20 HP or less from the cold spells. His minions seem to disappear when he dies, which is unfortunate (I only killed the Hybrid Mist thing, accidentally, via the cold spells). Might re-do this battle to kill an Amber Golem first, as I might need it to get the Crom Faeyr upgrade at the first moment possible.

Troll Mound next, and hopefully I can get the Girdle of 19 STR and craft up that cool belt. Need some cash for this though, and also have the parts to The Truth but can't see myself dropping 100k on it quite yet. I also want to craft up a Ring of Protection +4 and Cloak of Protection +3 (I think that can stack with other items, but will test first of course). Really didn't think cash would be an issue in this runthrough, given that I'm just equipping one person, but those rings are quite expensive!

To upgrade Crom Faeyr you need Uzuno's Blade, which is randomized on the 4th level of Watcher's keep (90% certain of that). And on that same level there is an Ultra Golem which will summon 6 (or 9, don't remember) amber golems if left alone. So no need to redo the Chroma fight, moreover the demon may switch to another form in the first rounds while you battle an Amber golem and then all of your cold spells are useless.

Any item of protection +2 works with another protective item of any grade. You can, however, only have one +3 or higher item equipped on a character. Only two exceptions: Cernd's Master of the High Forest cloak +4 and the Cloak of Arcane Immortality +3. Cernd's cloak can be worn with UAI and you have to fulfill the stat requirements as well. BTW Improved cloak of protection +2 also cannot be used together with a +3 or higher protective item.

Unless you modded that as well, the Truth cannot be used except by single-class good-aligned warriors. No need to upgrade it anyway, there are better weapons.

With so many game changes your character can make it. This, however, is not an IA v6 modded game anymore, fyi. I tried a similar run and was halted by two things - lack of Immunity to silence and various Sikret-implemented "anti-solo tweaks", so to speak.

Troll Mound: easy. Pretty much anything that can be tackled pre-Spellhold is proving to be not too difficult for this character.

Chaos (Druid Stronghold) is proving to be very difficult. He casts Killer Insects every 60 seconds, which negates spellcasting for... 60 seconds (not to mention the damage). Spell Immunity doesn't seem to block it, nor is there any save. I don't think I can disrupt the casting. I may try to summon a Planetar and see if that can get Chaos to try to cast on it while I get out of the area of effect. 60 seconds should give me enough time to unload my spellbook on Chaos, and if that's not enough, so be it. Joolon isn't really that useful anyways.

Expanded Mage Stronghold has been easy until "Why is it so cold in here?". That is looking very difficult. Without Foreknowledge, my Ray of Fragmentations are taking a long time to cast (I do have -3 casting speed from Vecna's upgrade and Amulet of Power's upgrade). I can get the Ice Golem down to around 85/200 via these spells, but finishing the job is very difficult. Especially because the Slow applications keep making my character stop attacking and his Attacks per round are poor under this effect. Might need to max out levels and come back to this one.

Firkraag is an enormous pain. Greater Doom appears to stack, and gives a -6 penalty to Thac0. Two of those and I'm nearly unable to hit Firkraag or his Skeleton Warlords.

Can you use the amulate of hades?Firkragg can be killed after he summons all 9 skeleton warlords.So ignore these skeleton warriors,make Firkragg nealy death twice then kill him the third time.